By Zephyria 
“But, someone….”
Eun-myeong’s lips fluttered. His face was blank, as if he were out of it.
“There are people who deserve it because they’ve committed too many sins.”
What? For a moment, Jun-il doubted his own ears. The surroundings were so noisy that he wondered if he had misheard, but suddenly Lee Eun-myeong’s eyes widened. It was as if he had been struck by a bolt of revelation.
“I said there are people who deserve to die like that.”
Clink! A sharp sound pierced through the shop. The noise, which completely shattered the atmosphere, brought an instantaneous silence to the surroundings. It seemed someone had broken a glass.
However, Jun-il didn’t even glance in that direction. What the hell was I just listening to? How could he spout such bullshit with such an innocent face…!
“No matter how much of a bastard they are, you should leave them to the police. How can you leave the execution to an individual?”
The part-timer hurried over to sweep up. As the glass shards were swept away, the noise returned to the shop. Amidst the bustle, Eun-myeong’s small chest puffed out. He raised his voice, unlike his usual self.
“I—I did, but even then….”
Then, perhaps realizing his voice had become too loud, he shrank his shoulders back like an attacked snail.
“There are lives where no one helps. Not even the police.”
He lowered his gaze from Jun-il, where it had been fixed, back to the table. He stared intently at something. Jun-il looked closer and saw an ant crawling on one side of the tin table.
He suspected that Eun-myeong was projecting his own life onto that ant.
“When you’re poor, powerless, and have no connections, everyone tries to use you somehow.”
Having lost his appetite, Eun-myeong no longer lifted his chopsticks. Hiding his arms beneath the table, he refused to even meet Jun-il’s eyes.
“It’s even worse when you act like an idiot because you’re uneducated, like me….”
It felt as if he were hiding something, or perhaps he was just acting defensively because he felt offended by Jun-il’s words.
“They’re desperate to bleed people like that dry, even if… they’ve gone through something unpleasant.”
The sentence ended awkwardly, without a proper conclusion. Lee Eun-myeong simply kept rubbing his cell phone with his thumb, as if wanting to lean his heart on something.
The only messages he had exchanged were with his Noona and Kang Pyeong-won.
Jun-il paid particular attention to the contact with Kang Pyeong-won. Usually, it was Lee Eun-myeong who sent the messages. Despite not giving much of a reply, Kang Pyeong-won had assigned a man to follow Lee Eun-myeong.
An attachment to one another was evident. But it wasn’t pure at all; it was twisted and entangled in a filthy, impure way.
He had thought this one would be easier to approach than that fortress-like man. But lo and behold, every time he reached out, Eun-myeong retreated so sharply that it was maddeningly frustrating.
His skill at teasing was no joke. No wonder he had bewitched that Kang Pyeong-won. With his emotions becoming complicatedly tangled, Jun-il let out a long breath.
Furthermore.
“…….”
There was something that had been bothering him for a while. Jun-il lifted his glass to his lips. Pretending to drink, he rolled his eyes to the side.
Two o’clock to the left. There, he saw a face that looked strangely familiar. It was the guy he had seen at the convenience store. He had thought the man’s punching form was far too clean. He had looked for him to find out his name, but the man had already vanished like smoke.
Once he started noticing him, he couldn’t stop. Damn, he only noticed now.
“I’m going to the restroom for a second.”
Jun-il stood up. Eun-myeong didn’t even look his way.
“…….”
He had expected the man from the convenience store to follow him, but the man remained in his spot.
He wondered if he had been assigned to monitor him. No, the target was wrong. He wasn’t monitoring him.
‘Since he’s my lover, I’m concerned about him in various ways, so I’ve attached someone. As you can see, he’s so pretty and cute that a lot of pests swarm around him.’
Jun-il shuddered for a moment at the voice that seemed to penetrate the back of his head. Goosebumps rose along his spine.
Kang Pyeong-won was monitoring Lee Eun-myeong.
Lee Eun-myeong was being put to the test.
A crack had suddenly formed in that relationship, which was twisted beyond repair yet abnormally locked together.
Would there be a gap for him to wedge himself into?
* * *
The Boss returned. However, his expression gave no hint of his intentions.
It was dawn when Eun-myeong, worried, had called him. After hesitating for a long time, he had said he had something to tell him and asked if he could come immediately. Even then, he had assumed his request would be rejected….
But he walked through the door immediately.
Like a miracle.
Eun-myeong was almost overcome with emotion by the moonlight pouring over the man’s shoulders.
“Boss…, I heard a bo-body floated up from the sea.”
Fearing someone might hear, Eun-myeong lowered his voice as much as possible, even though he knew they were the only two in the hotel.
“And why does that matter?”
He gripped Eun-myeong’s shoulders. He embraced Eun-myeong, who felt soft even in the bones that should have felt the most solid in the body.
“What does that have to do with you and me?”
His face was as composed as always. Meanwhile, his hand began to undo Eun-myeong’s pants as if searching for something.
“It happens often around this time. It’s raining, isn’t it?”
As he grabbed each buttock with his hands and spread them, the hole opened with a wet, sucking sound.
A place as red, narrow, damp, and slippery as Eun-myeong’s lips, a place that bestowed pleasure upon him. Because they hadn’t had relations for a few days, it was closed quite tightly. Feeling his gaze, it suddenly burst with lubrication, like Pavlov’s dog.
“Th-then, is it okay?”
Despite the state of his lower body, he was worrying about useless things.
“You’d be better off worrying about yourself right now.”
To think he was worrying about him; it was laughable.
Without even imagining what filthy thoughts were currently filling the man’s head, he poked a finger into the hole. Hngh, Eun-myeong let out a moan.
“Boss….”
The man explored Eun-myeong’s entire body as if licking it. If there were a handprint anywhere, he would surely kill the one responsible. He rubbed and sniffed Eun-myeong’s body, which was as clean as if the first snow had fallen, as if leaving his own footprints. He thoroughly scanned to see if even a single grain of another man’s scent remained.
“Ha, hng….”
Soon, Eun-myeong became like a mere thread. And various parts of him were stained and flushed red with the man’s traces.
The two hurriedly overlapped their bodies. Soon, the room was filled with the sound of flesh slapping together, the creaking of the bed, and Eun-myeong’s high-pitched moans that sounded like he was suffering.
The relationship, which seemed to break yet never did, relentlessly gnawed away at Eun-myeong. It crushed him as if it intended to debone him. Eventually, Eun-myeong collapsed on the bed like a dead person, his limbs limp.
Even after exhausting so much energy, the man clicked his tongue as if it weren’t enough. Then, saying he needed to shake off some energy, he headed to the swimming pool in the early morning. The man’s large body splashed around, repeatedly scooping up the blue water like a ladle.
Splash, slosh, splash….
Because of that, Eun-myeong’s toes, as he sat on a sunbed, got wet. Water seeped between his reddish toes. Eun-myeong just watched the waves undulating helplessly.
“…….”
He wanted to get closer, but not a single shred of strength remained in his body. Eun-myeong’s face drooped with longing. He became sullen, like a puppy that hadn’t eaten for days.
Soon, the man gripped the tiles with both hands and hauled himself up. Swoosh, streams of water flowed down his body like a waterfall. The muscles clinging ruggedly to his dark, tanned skin flexed and tightened at will, boldly revealing his prowess.
“What’s with your face?”
He slapped the side of Eun-myeong’s ear with a hand as large as a pot lid, causing water to spill out.
“For fuck’s sake, you look like someone who just got caught cheating.”
Eun-myeong looked up at the incomprehensible words. What on earth did he mean by that? He didn’t know why the words he blurted out after swimming were of that nature.
“Or did you kill someone?”
Haha, he let out a dry laugh. He welcomed the viscous gaze that clung stickily to his body. He was lonely. He missed him. He wanted to reach him.
“If so, don’t just dump them anywhere; bring them to me. I’ll devour them.”
Then, without waiting for an answer, he threw down the towel and entered the shower room to wash. The cold gaze directed at him was the same as usual, yet different.
How far had he drifted from him today, or how much closer had he become? Eun-myeong felt as if he were wandering aimlessly through a swamp.
He slowly stood up. A terrible sensation throbbed in his buttocks. He carefully took a step. Damp footsteps followed. He intended to set out the clothes before the man came out.
As he took the jacket out of the closet on one side, the inner pocket was bulging.
Something hard clinked and rattled against his fingertips. For a moment, Eun-myeong wondered what it was, then he realized. Even though he had never seen it with his own eyes, his intuition told him.
As he carefully slid his hand inside the jacket, a small red box rolled out. It was a ring case with a gold border.
“…….”
Eun-myeong glanced toward the shower room again. Swoosh, the water poured down aggressively. The man usually showered for about ten minutes. That meant he still had a few minutes of leeway.
He wanted to see. If by some chance, just by some slim chance, it could be his. Eun-myeong wanted to pin his hopes on even the smallest probability.
Click, as he opened the lid, an incredibly sparkling ring appeared. His Noona had said the diamond was as big as a fist, and it truly was huge.
Eun-myeong carefully took out the ring and tried it on. The circumference was enormous. Ridiculously so. It was a size that didn’t fit his finger at all.
One might expect the size to be slightly off if bought without a direct fitting, but this was far too large. It was at a level where it would only fit on a thumb.
Eun-myeong looked at his finger with sorrowful eyes. At a glance, they were so slender that they looked as if they had no capacity for work.
It was not his.
Neither his heart, nor the ring.
They did not belong to him.